The short-time and global behavior are studied for an autonomous linear evolution equation, which is defined by a generator inducing a uniformly bounded holomorphic semigroup in a Hilbert space. A general necessary and sufficient condition is introduced under which the norm of the solution is shown to be a log-convex and strictly decreasing function of time, and differentiable also at the initial time with a derivative controlled by the lower bound of the generator, which moreover is shown to be positively accretive. Injectivity of holomorphic semigroups is the main technical tool.